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There are bad actors who make bad decisions in the judicial system, that have resulted in unequal and unfair treatment, obviously. To distort that to mean the system itself is fundamentally flawed, or that the system is rigged against a particular identity group of people, is not a logical step. Even worse, to declare that the current system is so broken that it has to be torn down and replaced with something more "fair", without being able to specify what exactly is broken with the current system, or what the specifics of that other system that would replace it might be, is a bunch of postmodernist nonsense. BLM isn't at all interested in simply ending police brutality.

Which is kind of the core problem, IMHO. "Black lives matter" as a concept is really not controversial in any way. Yes, anyone who believes that all humans are individuals and of equal objective value philosophically can confidently agree with that. We might disagree on the degree to which the statement relies on an unproven implication that society inherently values the lives of individuals with a certain skin pigment less than other individuals with a different skin pigment, but that's leading us down a different path of discussion Unfortunately, "Black Lives Matter", the organization and movement is something that is completely different and stands for something that is completely different than the plain English phrase means (as evidenced by their now-deleted "what we believe" webpage. So, just like with a lot of sophistry used in the name of advocacy, not being in support of "Black Lives Matter" (the organization) gets to be weaponized against whomever states it as "racist" (or whatever other word from the deplorables litany one wishes to arm themselves with) by intentionally co-mingling the concept with the org.

Not by a long shot. BLM is protesting for a forced Marxist-style transfer of social power and financial wealth from whom they perceive are the "haves" to whom they perceive are the "have nots"...in the name of "equity" (e.g. equality of outcome; where we all have the same social power and we all have the same financial means). That has absolutely zero to do with the status of being "equal before the law", which is what actual "equality" is in a western democracy. Equality and liberty in a free society comes with no promise of social status or financial wealth, good or bad.

I think we have to be skeptical of that number based on the evidence that is out there from the investigation. To wit: It isn't outrageous for someone to claim 1,000 hours in a year; I know numerous airline guys who hit this number somewhat regularly. Definitely unusual for a non-military, non-airline guy to be getting that amount of hours, but I wouldn't find it impossible to believe. It is, however, not possible that he flew 5,200 hours in one year. This would mean he was logging 14 hours of flight time per day, every day, for 365 days. And since he reported only 200 hours of time during the "last 6 months" of that year...well, apparently Mac was logging augmented crew time while he was sleeping. But, even that first number has to be taken in perspective of other evidence, like: So, if the B-17 was flying under 300 hours per year total, even if you make the assumption that Mac was flying every single one of those hours (which we know he wasn't - I personally know people who flew 909 during that timeframe, and not with Mac in the seat), where were the other 700-ish hours per year coming from? This would require him to fly *double* the amount of hours he was theoretically getting in the B-17 in some other aircraft on the tour. Remember, Mac was not a professional pilot at any point during his career and Collings was the only flying he was doing. The evidence here shows that there was some amount of "Parker P-51" time going on here. How much? Tough to say...but it could be a substantial amount based on the self-reporting from the FAA medicals. He had to understand that the hour report to the FAA on your medical is an official attestation of your flight experience. I admit, I bought into the Mac mystique too. The way he was spoken about by other pilots, as well as the way he spoke and carried himself, I'd have thought he was some old 'Nam vet, or old fire-bomber pilot, or retired airline guy. I was surprised to learn in this report that he'd only had his multiengine rating since 1999, and that he'd never actually had a professional flying career. The data here, as well as his actions during the emergency, give me many many questions about the authenticity of basically anything said about his credentials or experience.

It’s bad. I’ve heard many say that an “11/10” on the scale of how bad it is would be an understatement. Solarwinds stores network topology, configuration, and credentials for all of those organizations. The Air Force is also a prime user. If the network was a bank, the hackers would have access to floor plans, schedules, vault keys and maybe even have an inside man still depending on the level of compromise. CISA/DHS is saying that if you have Solarwinds installed (or Orion) that was updated since March of this year, you need to assume everything in your network is compromised. It’s actually insane how big of a deal this is. Many affected companies and organizations are literally talking about entire server rebuilds of everything. SIPR is just one example of a potentially entirely compromised network: https://www.naturalnews.com/2020-12-18-pentagon-orders-shutdown-classified-networks-solarwinds-orion.html#

Phrasing

Yes, I was aware of his numerous hours. Other than that, I know nothing about this pilot. And as such, I'm unable to judge his "experience" level (hence my "correction" to your quote). That will have to be explained by those that flew with him. My opinion is that "hours" tells me very little as to how hard the pilot worked to become better after each flight. I know pilots with 500 hours in type that are superior to others with 1500 hours in the same type. It goes back to what I stated previously: do you have 5000 hours? Or 1 hour, 5000 times? I'm speaking in generalities and not about this pilot or incident, since the accident report doesn't really shed enough light on how much quality proficiency training he had accomplished in the previous year. A good example I know of is Lee Lauderback. Lee has logged more P-51 time than anyone in history. And Lee works very hard at his craft.... which is why most P-51 pilots go to Lee to learn the Mustang, or go through a recurrency course. I'm told he makes you a much better pilot after every 1.0 hours in the aircraft. The fact that he's also a great guy is just icing on the cake.

But come on? No ball turret or waist gunners?